Teaching preschool children about nature: A project to provide soil education for children in Turkey

In terms of gaining environmental awareness and sensitivity, preschool is the most important period in an individual's life. Preschool education enables lasting steps to be taken towards sustainable development, which has become widespread issue of increasing importance in recent years, and whose importance continues to increase. There is a need for studies that establish environmental awareness and support sustainable development throughout the world, especially in developing countries, such as Turkey. Taking this need into consideration, the purpose of this study is to introduce the results of the "Learning about soil with Tipitop and his friends" project, a project organized within the scope of the project group activities of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Schools of Nature and Science (4004). The aim of the project was to introduce soil and concepts related to soil conservation to preschool children between 5 and 6 years of age. The sample group of the project was comprised of 180 children (90 experimental, 90 control) between the ages of 5 and 6, attending the kindergarten of primary schools, affiliated to the National Ministry of Education, located in the province of Denizli. Research findings demonstrated that the soil-related knowledge scores of children in the experimental group of the project increased in a statistically significant way, in comparison to those of children in the control group. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC